NEWSLETTER
Number 148
February 2018
The CBHL’s 50th Annual Meeting June 19-22, 2018
Botanical and Horticultural Libraries in the Modern Era: Training and Vision for the Future by Stephen Sinon Head of Special Collections, Research and Archives, LuEsther T. Mertz Library The Water Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. New York Botanical Garden New York, NY
We are excited to host CBHL’s 50th annual meeting at the iconic New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City. This year we are delighted to announce that we will be convening our annual meeting with our sister organization European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group (EBHL) and with the Linnaeus Link Partners Consortium. Committee meetings, CBHL and EBHL executive board meetings, and the Linnaeus Link Partners business session will be held on Tuesday, June 19. An opening reception at the NYBG will also take place on Tuesday, June 19. The conference, including member and guest presentations, business meeting, and tours will occupy us Wednesday through Friday, June 20-22. Optional tours (fees apply) will be available on Saturday, June 23. Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at New York Botanical Garden. (Continued on page 3)
February 2018
Group (EBHL) is an association to promote and facilitate co- From the President operation and communication between those working in Donna Herendeen botanical and horticultural libraries, archives and related Science Librarian institutions in Europe. “Europe” is interpreted in the widest sense Lenhardt Library to include countries both within and outside the European Union (EU).” The EBHL Facebook page with pictures and information Chicago Botanic Garden is here: < https://www.facebook.com/EBHLg/ >. Glencoe, Illinois The partners in international project Linnaeus Link usually meet at the same time as EBHL and several CBHL member Dear Colleagues, libraries participate in or contribute to the Linnaeus Link project. “The Linnaeus Link Project is an international collaboration It is already November, how time flies. First, if anyone is between libraries with significant holdings of Linnaean material. nd interested in running for the 2 Vice President position on the It is funded, maintained and co-ordinated by the Linnean Society CBHL Board for 2018, please contact the Nominating Committee of London. Its main aim is to be a comprehensive, online Union Chair, Amy Kasameyer, for more information on the position. Catalogue of Linnaean publications, facilitating research for The Nominating Committee will be searching for candidates. scholars worldwide by enabling them to identify locations of Being on the CBHL Board is a rewarding experience and titles with a single internet search. It also acts as the official membership service as a Board Member is what keeps CBHL bibliography of works by and relating to Linnaeus and his legacy alive and well. by using and continuing the bibliographic work of Basil By the time this issue arrives in your mailbox, the CBHL Soulsby.” See the Project website for information about this Board will have met at the New York Botanical Garden, one site important endeavor: th for the 50 CBHL Annual Meeting in June of 2018. Our Hosts < http://www.linnaeuslink.org/toserve/managedpage/view/ will have given us a glimpse of the wonderful things you will About+Us >. encounter at the next Annual Meeting. We will have navigated Lastly, as you renew your CBHL membership for 2018 this from airports and train stations to the meeting site, stayed at one year, please consider a donation to the Founders Fund Travel of the selected meeting accommodations, and hunted out Award; the option to donate to this Fund is on the renewal form. interesting and affordable places for dining. We will also have The Founders Fund Travel Fellowship Award Fund was spent most of the day attending to Board Business and keeping established to assist CBHL members to attend the annual meeting our Council in good shape so that it will continue for another fifty and is only sustained with donations from the Membership. The years. number of awards issued and CBHL’s ability to offer these th This next Annual Meeting is special. It is our 50 awards is completely dependent on the generosity of the CBHL Anniversary and we will be sharing it with EBHL (European Membership. Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group) and Linnaeus Link. Since both will be joining us for the meeting at the New York See you in the next issue. Botanical Garden and Brooklyn Botanic Garden, it will be a unique opportunity to meet and interact with librarians from those two international organizations. I would like to take a moment to briefly introduce our two guest organizations EBHL and Linneaus Link. EBHL, European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group, is a group similar to CBHL. It started on September 29, 1994, and is about to celebrate its 25th year. Many CBHL and EBHL members are affiliate members and you will see familiar CBHL faces in their meeting photographs. CBHL assists one CBHL member with a stipend, chosen by lottery, to attend the EBHL Annual meeting each year, encouraging interaction and communication with the two organizations. “The European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries February 2018 2
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library at New York Botanical Garden
(Continued from page 1)
The conference accommodations are the Fordham University Residence Halls located directly adjacent to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx and/or The Roosevelt Hotel conveniently located in midtown near Grand Central terminal. Reservations for either housing option can be made through the links in the Housing tab of the Guide. Use Code CNYBJ8 < https://cbhl.libguides.com/c.php?g=753354&p=5396313&preview=949f2f85dc1d59af65ec80001568ffd4 >. Limited housing blocks have been reserved so please book early. For information on Financial Support to attend this meeting click here. < https://cbhl.libguides.com/c.php? g=753354&p=5396313&preview=949f2f85dc1d59af65ec80001568ffd4 >.
IN THIS ISSUE
The CBHL’s 50th Annual Meeting June 19-22, 2018 by Stephen Sinon…………………………..…………….....…..1 From the President by Donna Herendeen ……….………………….……………………………...…………………....2 Conservation and Preservation by Kathy Crosby…………………………………………………………..……..…….4 Members’ News compiled by Beth Brand and Shelly Kilroy ………….…………………..….………….….…………...5 Calendar of Upcoming Events by Rita Hassert ………………….…...…………………………………….…..……….8 Biodiversity Heritage Library News and Collection Highlights by Grace Costantino…………………..…..………...9 CBHL Board of Directors 2017-2018…………………………………………………………….……………………..12 Book Reviews by Pat Jonas & Esther Jackson……..………………..…...………………………...………..……….…..13 CBHL Conference Collaboration Grant Program…………………………………………………………………….17 On the Web by Stanley Johnston ………..…....…………………...……....…………….….…………….……………..18 Join Us!...... 20
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procedure in the user policy. Conservation and Preservation At the meeting we discussed sharing archives material one by Kathy Crosby document, one folder, one box, or multiple boxes at a time and Head Librarian user “sign out” and “return” procedures. Working at the one Brooklyn Botanic Garden document or one folder at a time level clearly adds to the workflow, but that has become more of a trend of late. I think Brooklyn, NY many of us immediately felt this approach was impossible, but This past September, I attended the Single-Day Library I’ve begun to find myself starting to list the contents of each Protection Track at the International Foundation for Cultural folder and checking the folder after use. Folder level is my likely Property Protection Annual Meeting, held this year at Yale from choice for the future. An obvious solution is to digitize September 16, 2017-September 20th, 2017. everything, but I’m not there yet either; I have to believe One of the presentations was on developing a special digitization is not only cheaper, but provides greater and less collections reading room audit and the implications for the damaging access in the long run. Whatever practice you decide security of each reading room and the library at large. For a upon should be stated in your policy document, so users know place like Yale, thinking contextually about its library and what to expect. security issues demands more wide range thinking, of course, Bag storage? Bag search? At my institution we cannot, as a than that of my situation at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Still, rule, hold people’s bags, but I would love us to provide lockers the talk given by Michael Bell, Associate University Librariam for people using the library—at least its special collections. We for IT and Administrative Services for Yale, really got me do lock the bags of people visiting the rare book room in an thinking. So did Head of Security, Beinecke Rare Book Room office, but it’s not the best practice; I’ll be talking to our security and Manuscript Library, Lynn Ieronimo’s talk on “Why People department about this in the coming year. If you worked, for Steal from Special Collection Libraries” and President of instance, at a fine arts university, as some of my co-meeting Collections Research for Museums, Denver, Colorado, Peggy attendees did, could you even collect, store, and return all the Schaller’s talk on “Balancing Access and Security in Library exacto knives, razor blades, etc., your students use in their work? Special Collections.” I particularly enjoyed the session on “Safe Handling of For the most part, at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, we have good Special Collection Material” by Christine McCarthy, Chief sight lines on how material is being used whether in the main Conservator, and Tara Kennedy, Preservation Services Librarian, reading room or the rare book room. I know from many of the Yale University Libraries. Yale has a great LibGuide on care and meeting attendees sitting near me that this is a problem for many handling; see the link below. Because of this session, I have a people, so I count myself lucky even if that means I am short on new box of nitrite gloves for handling photographs, I have a space. better sense of how to approach an unusually large sheet of paper As for how material moves from special collections to the by its diagonals, and might try a spatula for turning brittle or user, that’s my responsibility, and if I put something aside, I’ve fragile paper. put the item in my office or somewhere near where the material We covered much more in the sessions of the meeting—the would be filed or shelved. There’s only a small amount of real impact of poor cataloging or lack of cataloging on security; estate available. That being said, I am taking more time to track provenance; factors related to theft like custody of ownership, the status of items, develop a better storage map, and catalog or protecting family legacy, augmenting a personal collection, re-catalog items in a more informative way. If your situation is monetary value; internal and external security; video cameras and more complex, see Michael Bell’s auditing documents at the end archival maintenance; active shooter scenarios; and fire. The of this article. latter session on the “Philosophy of Fire” was given by Nick We, at the Garden, could do a far better job of preparing users Artim of the Heritage Protection Group. A note about loose with a policy that states our expectations with regard to handling paper—it’s kindling; boxing it up in cardboard helps to resist and use, and we could even take the step of having users sign the fire; something I think we all know, but don’t always get around document. Early on in my career, my expectations would simply to doing. There are also less toxic gases available for fire have been that someone handle the material in a gentle, careful, suppression systems than in the past. orderly fashion. I assumed that if someone was interested in the There were many facets of this meeting that inspired my material the way I was, he or she would simply honor the desire for change, but the point was made to start small. material and treat it accordingly. A lot of users do, and I truly A lot of the documents Michael Bell used in his presentation on enjoy seeing them work their way through the files. But that’s not reading rooms and their security are available at : always the case, is it? On the other hand, asking known and < http://tinyurl.com/ifcpp-rraudits trusted colleagues to sign a user policy document or sign out an LibGuide on Care & Handling at Yale : item to use right in front of you might prove difficult at first, but I https://guides.library.yale.edu/ld.php?content_id=29277698 >. think I am willing to do that if I can provide the right kind of context. Can you ask one user to sign and one not? That’s, of course, likely discriminatory and best to be avoided. I have also had the experience of saying no to a user unless he If you have ideas for possible discussion or she writes a letter to the President’s Office. We do have a in Kathy Crosby and Charlotte Tancin’s policy that requires appointments and preliminary discussion, but some people’s approach to our collections is so aggressive—as new column on preservation and though they are entitled in some way—that I have, at times, conservation, please contact improvised and instituted an additional layer of security. Whatever second layer of security is approved, explain the Kathy Crosby at [email protected].
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CBHL Members’ West News Susan C. Eubank Arboretum Librarian Compiled by Beth Brand Arboretum Library Librarian, Schilling Library Los Angeles County and Botanic Garden Desert Botanical Garden Arcadia, CA Phoenix, Arizona
New events added to the Arboretum Library Allaina Wallace calendar and a social media experiment Head Librarian and Archivist
Helen Fowler Library Beer for Books at the Family Music Festival, the Members Denver Botanic Gardens Appreciation Party in the Library, used book sales, and the art Denver, CO exhibits on the Library walls and counters have been perking along for several years with varying levels of success. They are generally well received by their audiences and give good exposure to the Arboretum Library to new audiences. This winter and spring we are adding two new events to the mix Landscape: Natural, Urban and Imagined
Jaime Groetsema in her element.
The Helen Fowler Library would like to introduce our new librarians. Jaime Groetsema, part-time Technical Services Librarian, first joined us as Public Services Librarian on August 7th but moved into the Technical Services position in September. Chloe Campbell, half-time Archivist, started on January 3rd. They, along with myself and Elaine Zummer, complete the current team of librarians at Denver Botanic Gardens.
Saturday, February 24, 2018, 2-3:30pm
Poets In the Library
This event will be the first ever live poetry event to take place in the Arboretum Library. Four of Los Angeles' most distinctive and popular writers and performers, Brendan Constantine, Mary Alice Daniel, Nicelle Davis, and Olga Garcia, will evolve poems inspired by their visits to the Arboretum and in exploration of the theme Landscape: Natural, Urban and Imagined. The Chloe Campbell in her element at her former Arboretum Library event will be moderated by Suzanne Lummis. position as Records Management Facilitator, This event is free with Arboretum admission and for Arboretum US Fish and Wildlife Service, Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge, Kauai, Hawaii. members.
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Brendan Constantine, known far and wide for his dynamic The price point is for members and nonmembers, pre-paid and at performance style, has published four full-length poetry the door. The innovation on the “members” price is that I want collections. Mary-Alice Daniel was born in Nigeria, raised in to encourage community so Arboretum members join all the England and Tennessee, and is currently an Annenberg Fellow in local plant societies, local botanical gardens, and library University of Southern California’s PhD program in Creative associations as “members.” Send good thoughts our way for this Writing. Nicelle Davis is the creator of The Poetry Circus and first time event. collaborator on the Nevermore Poetry Festival. Olga García Echeverría is the author of Falling Angels: Cuentos y Poemas. Adventures on Instagram She teaches literature at California State University Los Angeles Check out the links below to see the work of my wonderful and creative writing to 5th graders. Instagram volunteer, Victoria Bernal (@lahistory), who cleverly Landscape: Natural, Urban and Imagined celebrates the Los encourages the wider world to Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden; the exhibition appreciate many aspects of the the naturalist's desk: language + landscape, with art and text library collections and installations by Pamela Burgess in the Arboretum Library; and programs. With only 267 the anthology cited by The Los Angeles Times as one of the Ten followers, she carefully Best Books of 2015, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and exploits hashtags to give us Beyond, edited by Suzanne Lummis. The anthology is also the more exposure. Fortunately Reading the Western Landscape Book Club selection for for me she doesn’t come from February. the library world or botanic garden world, so her ideas are fresh and innovative. < https://www.instagram.com/ p/BctAVLSB4e6/?taken- by=arboretumlibrary >
< https:// www.instagram.com/p/ My favorite image from the holiday BdlELHoh1_K/?taken- slide show on the @arboretumlibrary Instagram created and managed by by=laarboretum > library volunteer Victoria Bernal.
Los Angeles Arboretum Foundation members enjoying the Members Apprecia- tion Party in the Library. This successful event inspired the proposed Party in the Stacks.
Party in the Stacks The other new activity the Arboretum Library will be experimenting with this spring is a new event intended to be a fundraiser called “Party in the Stacks.” We have appropriated a semi-reserved date during the first weekend in May that used to be used for the Arboretum’s very large garden show. That show ended many years ago and the organization has tried various things on that date. This year it’s a Library fundraiser. The inspiration for the event comes from our successful Members’ Appreciation Parties held in the Library twice. The renovated space is conducive to mingling. Thoughts about the party led to settling on live music, savory appetizers, beer, wine and possibly a tequila drink, projections on the outside back wall of the Arboretum Library’s William Aplin slide collection, displays of the mid-century modern materials, and the typical used book sale in the reading area of the Library. The music, food, and drink will spill out the back door of the This is the @arboretumlibrary Instagram post with the most feedback. It also Library and expand into the balmy Southern California night. got reposted from the Arboretum Library feed to the Arboretum feed which is One idea that we are still mulling over is whether to have a plant where it was enjoyed the most. The @LAArboretum has many more followers, Jeopardy game going in the Children’s area. Does this sound of course. Here is what the post said. “A sneak preview of Pamela Burgess' new art exhibition in the Library! #artinthestacks (Photo courtesy of like too much, too little, or just right? @corvid.bones ).“
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movement, which featured beautifully landscaped grounds and CBHL Members’ East News sculptural monuments, is documented in Grave Landscapes by Compiled by Shelly Kilroy Danylchak and Cothran (1940-2013), landscape architect, urban Librarian, Peter M. Wege Library planner, and garden historian. Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park Rural cemeteries predated America’s public parks, and their popularity as picturesque retreats helped propel America’s public Grand Rapids, Michigan parks movement. Grave Landscapes details rural cemetery design characteristics to facilitate their identification and preservation, Staci Catron and places rural cemeteries into the broader context of American Cherokee Garden Library Director landscape design to encourage appreciation of their broader Cherokee Garden Library influence on the design of public spaces. Danylchak will discuss the inspiration for rural cemeteries, their physical evolution, the Atlanta History Center nature of the landscapes they inspired, and the value of these Atlanta, Georgia cemeteries in the 21st century.
Cherokee Garden Library Lecture, Book Launch Book signing and light refreshments will follow the lecture. Erica Danylchak, Grave Landscapes: The Admission for all lectures is $10, $5 for members, and free to Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemetery Movement AHC Insiders unless otherwise noted. Reservations are required. Tuesday, February 20, 2018 Please call 404.814.4150 or reserve tickets online at < 7:00 pm www.AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Lectures >. Atlanta History Center
Author and preservationist Erica Danylchak will discuss Grave Landscapes, her new University of South Carolina The deadline for the CBHL Newsletter Press book co-authored with the late James R. Cothran. May 2018 issue is March 15, 2018. During the Industrial Revolution people flocked to American cities, where overcrowding led to packed urban graveyards that Contact editor, [email protected], were unsightly and a source of public health fears. The solution with articles and ideas. was a revolutionary new type of American burial ground located in the countryside just beyond the city. This rural cemetery February 2018 7
Calendar of upcoming events Compiled by Rita Hassert, Library Collections Manager, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL
March 27-30, 2018. Philadelphia. Visual Resources Association’s 34th Annual Conference. < http://vraweb.org >
April 8-14, 2018 – National Library Week. < http://www.ala.org/nlw >
April 17-19, 2018. Arlington, VA. Computers in Libraries 2018. < http:// computersinlibraries.infotoday.com/2018 >
April 18-21, 2018. Vancouver. Museums and the Web 2018. < http://mw2018.museumsandtheweb.com >
April 30-May 6, 2018 – Children’s Book Week. < http://everychildareader.net/cbw >
May 6-9, 2018. Phoenix. American Alliance of Museums 2018 Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo. < http://www.aam-us.org/events/annual-meeting >
June 4-8, 2018. Southern California. American Public Garden Association 2018 Conference. < http:// www.publicgardens.org >
June 9-13, 2018. Baltimore. Special Libraries Association 2018 Annual Conference. < http://www.sla.org >
June 19-23, 2018. New York. Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries 50th Annual Meeting. < http:// www.cbhl.net >
June 21-26, 2018. New Orleans. American Library Association Annual Meeting. < http://www.ala.org >
July 15-21, 2018. Washington, D.C. Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Conference – 50th anniversary. < https://gnsi.org/event/conference/2018-conference-washington-dc >
July 21-25. Rochester, MN. Botany 2018. Societies participating in Botany 2018 will include the American Fern Society, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, International Association for Plant Taxonomy, Society for Herbarium Curators, Canadian Botanical Association/ L’Association Botanique du Canada and Botanical Society of America. < http://botany.org >
Check out the CBHL Conference Collaboration Grant Program on page 17!
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Biodiversity Heritage Library Updates and Collection Highlights by Grace Costantino Outreach and Communication Manager Biodiversity Heritage Library Smithsonian Libraries Washington, DC
Program Highlights
To stay up to date with all the latest news from BHL, join our mailing list < http://library.si.edu/ bhl-newsletter-signup > and follow Michaux, François-André. The North American Sylva. v. 1 (1853). Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries. < https:// @BioDivLibrary on social media. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52291937 >
Seeds in the Stacks with the USDA National Agricultural Library Collection Highlight
Mail-order catalogs have long been used by seed companies as Exploring the First American Silva a valuable and beautiful form of advertising. Such catalogs not only offered products for sale, but many also provided gardening The North American Sylva is a beautiful scientifically and tips, scientific essays, and beautiful artworks. BHL’s collections historically-significant work. Authored by François-André include over 39,000 seed and nursery catalogs < https:// Michaux, it is the first American silva - a descriptive flora of www.biodiversitylibrary.org/browse/collection/56 >. Many of forest trees. Published first these catalogs were digitized from the USDA National in French in 1810, an Agricultural Library, which holds one of the world’s largest English translation collections of seed and nursery catalogs. appeared in 1817, and it Recently, BHL went behind-the-scenes at the National was further enhanced with Agricultural Library during Seeds in the Stacks on Facebook Live supplementary volumes by to explore a selection of the library’s over 200,000 catalogs. You Thomas Nuttall in the can view a recording of the event on YouTube: < https:// 1840s. youtu.be/rY0J73_6B_o >. As an important work in the history of North Project Updates from the BHL NDSR Residents American botany, The North American Sylva is In 2017 as part of the IMLS-funded Foundations to Actions featured in the National project, BHL hosted five NDSR residents, stationed at Museum of American geographically-dispersed BHL partner institutions, to work on History's Cultivating interrelated projects to improve the features and functionality of America's Gardens exhibit, BHL. Learn more: < http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2016/06/ co-curated by Smithsonian bhl-receives-funding-to-host-national.html >. Libraries, Smithsonian In late 2017, the residents delivered webinars reporting on the Gardens, and the Archives results of their research and recommendations on how BHL of American Gardens. On might incorporate new technologies, and evolving best practices display in the exhibit is an for digital libraries and the larger biodiversity community. You 1853 edition of the work, can find recordings of the webinars here: < http:// published by Robert P. Michaux, François-André. The North blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2017/11/announcing-five-webinars- Smith of Philadelphia. The American Sylva. v. 1 (1853). Digitized by from-bhls-ndsr.html >. Smithsonian Libraries has Smithsonian Libraries. < https:// biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52292007 > February 2018 9
digitized this copy and made it freely available in the Biodiversity Heritage Library < https:// www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/118984 >. The Smithsonian Libraries' copy is just one of many editions and printings of this title, which has a rather long and complicated history.
Michaux, François-André. The North American Sylva. v. 2 (1853). Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries. < https://biodiversitylibrary.org/ page/50922039 >.
North America: Histoire des Arbres Forestiers de l'Amerique Septentrionale. While his father André would not live to see this publication, having died in 1802 during a scientific voyage bound Michaux, François-André. The North American Sylva. v. 1 (1853). Digit- for Australia, his influence on his son's botanical career was ized by Smithsonian Libraries. < https://biodiversitylibrary.org/ profound. page/52292089 > First published in Paris in 1810 and consisting of three French volumes, Histoire des Arbres Forestiers de l'Amerique François-André Michaux was the son of André Michaux, also Septentrionale was later translated into English by Michaux. a famed botanist and explorer. In 1785, as the Royal Botanist to Colleagues at the American Philosophical Society helped arrange Louis XVI, André received a royal commission to travel to the publication of the first translated edition, which was printed America to collect unique plants and identify useful tree species. by C. d'Hautel in Paris in 1817 under the title The North François-André, then fifteen years old, accompanied his father, American Sylva and sold by Thomas Dobson of Philadelphia. The and together, the father-son team explored eastern North translation was expected to be published in six half-volumes, but America, establishing two nursery gardens in New Jersey and later printings included a seventh half volume, six additional South Carolina, and collected specimens, shipping plants and plates, and a revised English text by Augustus L. Hillhouse. seeds back to France. The work was beautifully illustrated with 156 stipple-point In 1789/90, François-André returned to France, and six years engravings executed by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (one of the most- later, his father did the same. The duo then prepared celebrated flower painters in the whole history of botanical art), André's Histoire des chênes de l'Amérique (1801) on North his pupil Pancrace Bessa, Adèle Riché, and his brothers Henri- American oaks. This work would later serve as the basis for The Joseph and Antoine-Ferdinand Redouté. Each treated species is North American Sylva. François-André would return twice again accompanied by an illustration printed in color and finished by to North America, in 1801-03 and again in 1806-08, where he hand depicting the tree's branch, leaves, flowers, and fruit. continued to develop his passion for trees and forestry. In 1841, the first truly American edition of The North Eventually, François-André would channel this passion into American Sylva was printed in New Harmony, Indiana, by expert the production of a magnificent work on the trees of eastern printer William Amphlett using the original engraved copper February 2018 10
plates, which had been secured by philanthropist William Maclure during a trip to Paris, with the intention of producing an American edition of Michaux's work. The 1841 New Harmony edition was a reprint of an 1819 Paris edition with Hillhouse's revised English translation. The New Harmony edition was also the first whose title page mentioned three supplemental volumes by Thomas Nuttall describing trees from the "Trans-Mississippi" region, the Rocky Mountains, and the western United States. Nuttall was an English naturalist who arrived in North America in 1808 and participated in a series of collecting trips throughout the United States under the auspices of some of America's most pre-eminent botanists. This, together with the publication of his Genera of North American Plants in 1818, secured his reputation as America's leading botanist. Nuttall began work on a revised version of The North American Sylva in 1839. Over a seven-year period, he produced his three-volume supplement printed in Philadelphia, with volume one, parts one and two published by Judah Dobson in 1842 and 1843, volume two published by T. Ward in 1846, and volume three published by Smith and Wistar in 1849. The volumes included 120 lithographic illustrations prepared and executed under Nuttall's supervision by E.D. Long, G. Worley, G. West, J.T. French, and J.B. Butler, based on drawings by several artists, including William Gambel. The original drawings are in the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum (Cambridge, MA) at the Botany Libraries of Harvard University. Following Maclure's death, the original copper plates for The North American Sylva were acquired by Samuel George Morton of Philadelphia, after which another American edition was produced, augmented with notes by horticulturalist John Jay Smith, who served as editor of The Horticulturist from 1855 to 1860 and The American Michaux, François-André. The North American Sylva. v. 2 (1853). Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries. < https://biodiversitylibrary.org/ Gardener’s page/50922154 > Calendar in 1857. The Smithsonian's 1853 copy in BHL includes Smith's notes. More editions and printings followed, amounting to a total of more than a dozen known editions in multiple printings and formats. The long-running publication of the work is a testament to its impact and importance. Indeed, The North American Sylva served as a standard reference for North American woody plants for nearly a century following its original publication. Thanks to the Smithsonian Libraries and many other BHL partners and contributors, you can freely explore several different editions and printings of The North American Sylva in the Biodiversity Heritage Library: First French edition (1810): < https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ bibliography/74822 > (Digitized by The New York Botanical Garden) 1819 Paris edition with English translation by Hillhouse: < https:// www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/42243 > (Digitized by University of Pittsburgh Library System) Nuttall's supplements, 1842-49: < https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ bibliography/113214 > (Digitized by The New York Botanical Garden) 1853 edition: < https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/118984 > (Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries) If you're in the Washington, D.C. area and would like to see a copy of The North American Sylva in person, be sure to visit the Cultivating America's Gardens < https://library.si.edu/exhibition/cultivating-americas-gardens > exhibit, on display at the National Museum of American History through August 2018. Michaux, François-André. The North American Sylva. v. 3 (1853). Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries. < https:// biodiversitylibrary.org/page/51642869 >
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CBHL Board of Directors 2017-2018
Donna Herendeen, President Science Librarian, Lenhardt Library Chicago Botanic Garden [email protected] 847-835-8273
David Sleasman, First Vice-President Library and Information Services Coordinator Longwood Gardens Library [email protected] 610-388-5241
Michael Bobb, Second Vice-President Life Sciences Librarian, Iowa State University [email protected] 515-294-6943
Amy Kasameyer, Past President Librarian/Archivist Michaux, François-André. The North American Sylva. v. 3 (1853). Digitized by University and Jepson Herbaria Smithsonian Libraries. < https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/51642971 > University of California, Berkeley [email protected] Sources 510-642-2465 Note from author (Grace Costantino): I would like to recognize the authors of The Trees of North America (see sources below), Esther Jackson, Secretary whose excellent publication served as the primary and a vital Public Services Librarian reference for this article. LuEsther T. Mertz Library New York Botanical Garden [email protected] The majority of the information in this article is derived from: 718-817-8560 Fraser, Susan M., Sally A Leone, Gregory Long, Marta McDowell, and David Sibley. 2017. The Trees of North America: Bill Musser, Treasurer Michaux and Redouté's American Masterpiece. New York: Librarian, Seed Savers Exchange Abbeville Press. [email protected] 563-387-5622 Additional source: Reviewed Work: The North American Sylva. 1858. The North American Review, vol. 86, no. 179, pp. 359-368.
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Book Reviews Patricia Jonas, Book Review Editor New York, New York The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY
Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin by Daniela Bleichmar. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017. 240 pages, 153 color illustrations. Hardcover, $50.00. ISBN-13: 978- 030022402.
If I needed any proof that I am spending entirely too many hours reading reports on the day’s tweetstorms, looking at 2017’s best lists was it. I was irritatingly unfamiliar with many of the books I should have read, music I should have listened to, theater and movies I should have seen. And even though I hadn’t added much to it, my stack of unread books was higher than ever—from Pachinko (really any novels published during the year) to The Songs of Trees by David George Haskell, which I had also meant to review and which I am sure by now is in most of your libraries. There are also the exhibitions and performances I missed. I can usually forgive myself for not getting to those that are out-of-town, but I really regret not flying to Los Angeles to see at least some of the astonishingly ambitious Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, specifically “Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin” at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. It was a major exhibition comprising 150 paintings, rare books, illustrated manuscripts, maps, prints, and drawings, including objects never seen in this country. Happily, for those of us who didn’t get to the exhibition, we have an accompanying book of the same name with text by Daniela Bleichmar, who was also co-curator of the exhibition. The exhibition included important loans from the collections of museums and libraries around the world; and, since Bleichmar is Associate Professor at University of Southern California and connected to the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, she took full advantage of the collections of the Getty, USC, and Huntington, which has one of the world’s preeminent history of science collections. Bleichmar’s Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2012, reviewed in the Newsletter, Issue 129, May 2013) is in many of our collections and received a number of major prizes, including the PROSE award for the best book in the history of science, medicine, and technology from the Association of American Publishers. One might assume—in part because the title of the new book echoes the older one—that the content is a rehash of the earlier work, an adaptation for the exhibition’s wall text. That would be to sell short Visual Voyages which, if not taking the author’s arguments deeper, does take them wider in her polished and lively text that is simultaneously scholarly and more accessible to a general reader. Visual Voyages begins the story “of the many ways in which people in the Americas and Europe explored, imagined, and depicted the natural world of the region we now call Latin America.” The author’s Figure 2: Le vrais Bresil es province du Quito (The true Brazil, a depiction of Latin American nature and culture begins in the late fifteenth province of Quito), in Vallard Atlas, Dieppe (France), 1547, tempera, century and ends with the publication of On the Origin of Species. In gold paint, gold leaf, and black ink on parchment, 14 ½ × 18 ¾ in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.
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contrast, Visible Empire focuses on a relatively short period between the late 1770s and early 1800s and that is the period where the two books overlap. The page count for the body of both books is approximately the same, but Visual Voyages has many more full-page illustrations, so the actual word count is smaller; and, as a measure of its general appeal, there are just six pages of notes compared to forty in the earlier book and a bibliography that is twelve pages long compared to thirty five (perhaps a more manageable wish list for your library?). Since the dimensions of this new volume are greater, even the images that appear in both books generally have more impact in Visual Voyages. They are also printed darker, which makes them more dramatic, but can also mean some detail is lost, notably, for example, in six paintings from Museo de América, Madrid, by Vincente Alban, for José Celestino Mutis (Royal Botanical Figure 3: Unknown artist, Relación Geográfica map of Guaxtepec, 1580, ink and watercolor on paper, 24 ½ x Expedition to the New Kingdom of 33 ½ in. Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin. Granada). So, in each of these remarkable paintings which “centers on a person who is portrayed surrounded by the flora of the region, ripe and colorful, exuberantly presented in fanciful arrangements for visual consumption,” it is more difficult to decipher the identity of the “ripe and colorful flora” even though the image is almost fifty percent larger. In Chapter 1, “Rewriting the Book of Nature,” Bleichmar writes that “America was one of the hottest topics to come out of print shops,” and (citing Peter Mancall), “four thousand books on the subject [were] published by 1600, and a staggering six thousand more [appeared] in the following fifty years.” Some of the books considered are preserved in numerous CBHL rare book collections, like Fernández de Oviedo’s Historia general y natural de las Indias with the first European illustration of a pineapple; André Thevet’s Les singularitéz de la France antarctique with its exotic illustration of Thevetia ahouai; Francisco Hernández’s Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae with a terrific allegorical frontispiece. Books like these and reports, letters, drawings and maps by both Europeans and Americans, “rewrote the book of nature.” Among the rarest manuscripts illustrated in this chapter are a 1547 map of Brazil in the Vallard Atlas from the Huntington’s collection (fig. 2) and a 1580 map of Guaxtepec from the Relaciones geográficas in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas Austin. The former depicts “Europeans as people with clothing, technology, instruments, iron, large ships, and sophisticated navigational techniques—not to mention the cultural technologies embodied in the manuscript itself: cartographic knowledge, painting, and book making. Americans, by contrast, are presented as having no clothing, technology, or weapons worth taking seriously.” The other map presents an entirely different perspective, which is the goal of the visual evidence presented throughout the book. It is among as many as forty-five that were produced by indigenous creators for an atlas that was envisioned by the Spanish administration, but never published. Bleichmar analyzes two of these fascinating documents. At the center of one (fig. 3) is a Spanish church encircled by ancient irrigation canals. Below it is a courtyard and a hill with plants that is the indigenous place name. At the bottom right is the town’s famous walled garden of Moctezuma I—a vestige of pre-conquest culture. Figure 4: Nopal planta que se cría en la América y que The subject of Chapter 2, “The Value of Nature,” is the commodification of produce la grana (The nopal plant that is grown in America and produces cochineal), in Reports on the History, New World crops, like tobacco and chocolate, which Bleichmar examines at Organization, and Status of Various Catholic Dioceses of length. Few of these familiar stories are as dramatic as Cortés’s discovery of New Spain and Peru, Mexico,1620–49, pigment and ink on cochineal: how Spain then ruthlessly protected “imperial secrets” about its paper. The Newberry Library, Chicago. production, which allowed it to maintain an extremely lucrative, centuries-long February 2018 14
Figure 5: Frederic Edwin Church, “Chimborazo”, 1864, oil on canvas, 48 × 84 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation. monopoly on global trade in the dye. The author notes that to a greater extent than other commodities, cochineal depended upon indigenous knowledge to cultivate the nopal and harvest and process the insects. As elsewhere in this book, illustrations from unique manuscripts—like this early seventeenth century depiction of labor-intensive cochineal harvesting [fig. 4]—intermingle with those from more familiar printed books depicting the same subject. Madrid’s Royal Botanical Garden and Royal Natural History Cabinet were key subjects in Visible Empire, but earlier famous European cabinets of curiosities do not even appear in its index—like those of Ferrante Imperato, Ulisse Aldrovandi, Cassiano dal Pozzo and later, Albertus Seba. They are all considered in Visual Voyages in Chapter 3, “Collecting: From Wonder to Order.” In addition to Spanish and indigenous Brazilian scientific expeditions—a “botanical Reconquista”—other pre- and post-Linnaean European voyages to Latin America, particularly Dutch voyages, are taken up in this chapter. There are great treasures, lavishly illustrated on full pages: three paintings of American curiosities by Jacopo Ligozzi for the Medici from the Uffizi, three works by Maria Sibylla Merian from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium and eleven pages of more uncommonly reproduced large paintings of “exotic nature” by Albert Eckhout, who accompanied Johan Maurits to Dutch Brazil. Bleichmar also writes with exceptional clarity about Merian’s counterproof process in creation of the Huntington Library’s rare copy of Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium and the even rarer variant in The Royal Collection. Only two sets of that luxury variant were made—for Richard Mead (that is the one in the Queen‘s collection) and for Hans Sloane. She also explains (in more detail than one might expect) the process of publication of a new species through illustrations of herbarium specimen, field description, drawing, copper plate and printed book for Commelina hispida in Ruiz and Pavón’s Flora Peruviana et Chilensis. The final Chaper 4, “New Landscapes,” throws the spotlight on “two scientist-explorers [who] transformed the study of nature in the nineteenth century: Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin.” Of course, the spectacular engraving of Humboldt’s famous map of plant geography in Essai sur la géographie des plantes, is generously reproduced (on a double page spread that is still a fraction of the nearly three-foot width of the original), but it is preceded by a far less familiar 1803 map of the altitude of chinchonas by Francisco José de Caldas, who apparently shared his observations and measurements with Humboldt during his visit to José Celestine Mutis. Also reproduced on double-page spreads is the equally familiar print “Chimborazo Seen from the Tapia Plateau” from Vues des Cordillères and at the end of this chapter, the monumental painting “Chimborazo” by Frederic Edwin Church in the Huntington’s Collection [fig. 5]. In this chapter’s and the book’s final section, “Vistas: Sublime New Landscapes,” Bleichmar compares the romantic vision of this Hudson River School painter, who was so influenced by Humboldt, with the work of Mexican artist, José Maria Velasco whose Valle de México, painted within a few years of Church’s Chimborazo, is a work “similar in scope and scale to Church’s Andean landscape [that] articulates a rather different relationship to nature, land, and history.” Velasco’s large canvases “presented Mexican specimens as profoundly rooted in the territory,” to be celebrated, not to be captured, collected, and transported. Through the many “visual voyages” explored in this book Bleichmar continually reveals overlapping areas between intersecting but very different circles of knowledge of the Latin American natural world. It is an important book for every natural history collection. February 2018 15
Esther Jackson Public Services Librarian LuEsther T. Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY
An Abundance of Flowers: More Great Flower Breeders of the Past by Judith M. Taylor. Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press / Ohio University Press, 2017. 240 pages, 67 illustrations. Hardcover, $65.00. ISBN 9780804011921.
Landscape of Dreams: The Gardens of Isabel & Julian Bannerman by Isabel Bannerman and Julian Bannerman. London: Pimpernel Press, 2016. 296 pages. Hardcover, $75.00. ISBN: 9781910258606.
An Abundance of Flowers is a sister work to Taylor’s 2014 book, Visions of Loveliness: Great Flower Breeders of the Past. In Visions, Taylor wrote about the history of eighteen well-known flowering plants from the cut flower and nursery trades. In Abundance, she considers an additional eight: poinsettia, chrysanthemum, penstemon, gladiolus, dianthus, clematis, pansy/viola, and water lily. Each plant group has its own chapter that includes the origin of the plant; information about its taxonomic classification; biographical information about those who played significant roles in the plant‘s cultivation, discovery and/or commercialization; and information about the plant’s use and significance, both historic and present day. Because the plants have unique histories all their own, each chapter is a bit varied in terms of format and length. Casual readers might feel overwhelmed trying to absorb all of the information in Abundance at once, and so it seems to me that it is best to read a chapter at a time. By meting out the reading of the chapters, readers can enjoy stories, like the political intrigue involving the poinsettia, which includes a phantom American patent that supposedly kept Mexican growers from capitalizing on the plant’s popularity and economic potential. Taylor is a meticulous researcher and Abundance is filled with detailed notes and careful citations. She has followed up on urban legends and ambiguous word-of-mouth stories related to the cultivation and hybridization of these plant groups, both in the literature and by way of interviews. Abundance achieves what Taylor intended, restoring the lives and reputations of those who bred and developed these horticulturally-significant plants, but whose more personal stories had been lost over time. The advanced readers copy that I reviewed did not have an index, and I hope that this is because there is an indexer diligently working to create an index that will direct readers to all of the rich content contained in this work. To cement this work’s usefulness today and in the future, I hope that this critical component is as meticulously crafted as the narrative itself. For scholars of floriculture and floriculture enthusiasts, this present work, like Loveliness, is an information-rich reference and an important addition to any horticultural library.
Landscape of Dreams is an exquisite landscape architecture and landscape history book told in the voices of the designers, Isabel Bannerman and Julian Bannerman. The foreward by the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) begins, “For me, [the Bannermans] are the worthy heirs of William Kent, one of the greatest and most creative of early eighteenth century ‘designers’ who, like Julian and Isabel, managed to combine the arts of architecture, landscape and interior design in one seamless, unified theme. To do this believably, and with such original élan, is a mark of their unique contribution to society.” My anticipation after reading these words was palpable, and the book did not disappoint. The Bannermans met in the 1980s and received their first garden commission in 1990. Their aesthetic harkens back to the Scottish art February 2018 16
scene from which they emerged, and is also heavily influenced by classic garden literature. Landscape of Dreams is not only a lovely book filled with beautiful photos of the gardens the couple has designed, but also a window into their inspiration and processes. The first part of the book includes a history of their beginnings as designers, including literature and landscapes influential to their development. The Bannermans’ landscapes of dreams are to be found in formerly overgrown fields and forgotten hardscapes, manicured estates, and busy urban centers. The duo has designed landscapes on many prominent British estates, as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Garden to 9/11 in New York City. In total, sixteen of their gardens are treated in this book. It’s difficult for me to say which garden is my favorite. All of the photographs are transportive and evocative, and I wish I could explore each of the sixteen landscapes in person. Elements repeat between the gardens; in particular I love the designers’ use of wood. Natural shapes, such as tree trunks, roots, and carved sculptural elements, along with erected wooden structures add height and focal points to many landscapes. The stone and metal work are thoughtful and balanced, and the plantings are textured, layered, and vibrant. Many of these “new” gardens have aged, distressed elements nestled in exuberant but immaculate plantings. Beautiful too are the more formal, contained spaces that rely more heavily on hardscaping and the patterns of light to balance space. So much work has been done to achieve this feeling of timeless quietness, of landscapes that have materialized from dreams, accessible to travelers who pause, appreciate, and explore. For those who love landscape architecture, garden design, and landscape history, this book is not to be missed.
CBHL Conference Collaboration Grant Program During the 2010 mid-winter CBHL Board Meeting, the Board established a grant program to encourage CBHL members’ participation in other like-minded organizations’ conferences. Currently there is already a wonderful reciprocal relationship with the European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group (EBHL). To expand collaboration, this “CBHL Conference Collaboration Grant” will pay up to $500 towards conference fees (not including accommodations, travel expenses, or meals) for a CBHL member to go to the conferences of Garden Writers Association, American Public Gardens Association, Special Libraries Association, Internet Librarian, or similar organizations. The grantee would receive the funds before the meeting (up to $500) with the agreement the participant would present a report to CBHL (either through the CBHL Newsletter or as a presentation at the Annual Meeting). The report should include useful aspects of the conference that will help other CBHL members. The report is intended as continuing education for the CBHL members. The grantee is also intended to serve as a CBHL ambassador to the conference and is required to register as the CBHL representative. To receive the grant, the prospective grantee needs to submit a letter addressed to the CBHL Secretary and include: Name of conference Date of conference Amount of grant request URL to the conference website Reason for choosing the conference, including the benefit to CBHL The date when you will submit your report about the conference to either the CBHL Newsletter or as a talk at the CBHL Annual Meeting. Please give the Board one month prior to the registration deadline for the conference to make a decision about the grant. Funding will be awarded based on the amount of funds made available by the Board during that particular fiscal year. Submission address and/or email: CBHL Secretary, Esther Jackson, [email protected], LuEsther T. Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10458-5126
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On the Web: Popular Plant Topics and Seed Catalog Collections By Stanley Johnston Mentor, Ohio
Every now and then my inbox receives a notice from some popular magazine or garden site of a list of so many plants that have some special feature such as refreshing the air, stinking, driving off pests, etc. I then look for other sites on similar topics and pass them on to you so that you will know some of the topics currently being placed before the public. I have put a number of these sites together as a start of this column. We begin with 14 Plants That Stink < http://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/flowers-and-plants/14-stinky-plants- pictures >, a slideshow discussion of the Shasta Daisy, lantana, flowering pear, crown imperial, sea holly, “Globemaster” allium, paperwhite narcissus, datura, butterfly flower, cleome, mountain ash, marigold, skunk cabbage, and hawthorn. Stinky Plants < https://rottenbotany.com/category/stinky-plants/ > features articles on octopus stinkhorn, stinking hellebore, dead horse arum, Paedaria foetida, devil’s tongue, Amorphophallus amungus, the corpse plant, and the vampire lily. Mole Control –Home Remedies for Removing Moles from Your Yard < https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/animals/mole-control.htm > suggests allium, crown imperial, daffodils , fritillaries and the beautiful but deadly castor bean as plants whose pungency provide a deterrent. Repelling Deer in Your Yard is as Simple as the Plants < http://triblive.com/lifestyles/ jessicawalliser/3911150-74/deer-plants-foliage > is an article by Jessica Wellisa discussing various plants that, by their fuzzy or leathery foliage, content of substances toxic to deer, or heavily scented foliage, will deter deer browsing. In a similar vein, The Best Mosquito Repelling Plants According to Studies < http://bugofff.com/the- best-mosquito-repelling-plants-according-to-studies/ > sets forth a list of plants which fend them off via masking scents, emitting repellent odors, or containing substances toxic to the insects. On a more positive note, 15 Houseplants for Improving Indoor Air Quality < https://www.mnn.com/health/healthy-spaces/photos/15- houseplants-for-improving-indoor-air-quality/a-breath-of-fresh-air > provides a slideshow discussion of plants that have been documented to improve air quality building on the NASA research for space flights documented in the 1989 NASA Clean Air Study < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study >. Atlas Obscura < https://www.atlasobscura.com/ > is the source of two articles featuring items from two of our member libraries. Among The Oldest Treasures from 12 Great Libraries < https://www.atlasobscura.com/ articles/oldest-library-books-manuscripts-cuneiform-tablets > is a brief discussion of the oldest book in the Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden, Theophrastus’s Historia plantarum printed in Treviso, Italy, in 1483, which was formerly in the collection of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The other article is
Binding (left) and open page (above) of the oldest book in the Lenhardt Library's rare book collection is an incunabulum from 1483 by Theophrastus (371-286 BCE). The book includes the texts De Historia Plantarum and De Causis Plantarum, considered the most important treatises on plants from antiquity. The colophon reads Theophrasti de causis plantarum liber sextus et ultimus explicit. Impressum Tarvisii per Bartholomaeum Confalonerium de Salodio. anno domini. M.CCCC.LXXXIII. die xx. Februari. Those at the Lenhardt Library like to celebrate the book's birthday on February 20th.
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concerned with a discussion of The Treasures Blooming in Canada’s Largest Seed Catalog Archive < https://www.atlasobscura.com/ articles/royal-botanical-gardens-canada-largest-seed-catalog-archive >, the roughly 30,000 item collection which Ina Vrugtman started assembling in 1969 at the Royal Botanical Gardens . Seed and nursery catalogues have long been a special focus of collecting among our member libraries. A Short History of the Seed & Nursery Catalogue in Europe and the U.S. < http:// scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/seed/ > has been provided by the Special Collections and Research Center of Oregon State University Libraries and serves as a good introduction to the subject. These collections, by their ephemeral nature, have always been one of the concerns of CBHL’s PAC, which I never get to attend anymore because there is always a conflict in time with Publications or the ECC. As with rare books, the Biodiversity Heritage Library has begun adding early nursery and seed catalogs to their digitized public holdings as detailed in What’s Up with Seed Catalogs in BHL? < http:// blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2015/03/whats-up-with-seed-catalogs-in-bhl.html >, beginning with the base already created by the National Library of Agriculture’s earlier work scanning its Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection < https:// specialcollections.nal.usda.gov/guide-collections/henry-g-gilbert-nursery-and-seed-trade-catalog-collection >. Among other major contributing libraries with CBHL affiliations are the Smithsonian Libraries Seed Catalogs < http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/ SeedNurseryCatalogs/collection.cfm >, Cornell’s Ethel Z. Bailey Horticultural Catalogue Collection < http://bhort.bh.cornell.edu/ catalogs.htm >, and the University of Minnesota’s Andersen Horticultural Library Seed & Nursery Catalogs < https:// www.lib.umn.edu/ahl/seed-nursery-catalogs >. The BHL Browse Seed and Nursery Catalogs < https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ browse/collection/seedcatalogs > currently provides access to 35914 titles. The subject of oral histories was raised on the e-list by Steven Foster’s quest for an NAL interview with James A. Duke < https://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/james-duke >, which was found by our colleagues there. But it is hard to say if an outsider just searching the NAL site could readily find it or whatever other oral history records they may have. There does not appear to be an easy online method to determine which of our members have oral history programs, who has been interviewed or if the material is available on-line. The December 2017 issue of College and Research Libraries News has a downloadable pdf article on internet resources for “Marketing for the Beginner” < http://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/16839/18438 >; which deals with on-line sites for networking, graphic design, and free image repositories which might be of interest to some of our members. Liz Fite reminded us on the e-list of the plant test results made available on-line at Mt. Cuba Center Trial Garden < https:// mtcubacenter.org/research/trial-garden/ >. In The Minds of Plants < https://aeon.co/essays/beyond-the-animal-brain-plants-have-cognitive-capacities-too > Laura Ruggles, a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at the University of Adelaide, makes an argument for the cognitive ability of plants. Finally, those of you in attendance at the Minnesota meeting will remember Stephen Sinon’s entertaining discussion of dealing with film and television production using the institution as a location. So in closing I thought it would be of interest to look at some of the films shot at our member institutions. The most used and closest to Hollywood is the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden < http:// www.moviesites.org/arboretum.htm > to use the name form in this article which discusses its use in films and TV from a 1936 Tarzan movie to Fantasy Island in the 1970s. Later use through the late 1990s is discussed in Movies Made Me < http:// maddrey.blogspot.com/2008/08/los- angeles-arboretum.html >. The more detailed list of films shot there on an Arboretum webpage appears to no longer exist, but it has been replaced by a history page < http://www.arboretum.org/explore/ our-history/ > with a list of films at the bottom of the page. New York Botanical Garden’s movie use is described in Film Locations for Awakenings < http://www.movie- locations.com/movies/a/ awakenings.html#.WjRto02WwdV > and The Age of Innocence Film Locations < http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/a/ ageof.html#.WjRvJE2WwdV >. While I could not find specific references to films made at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, it is the site of the horrific final battle waged by Special Agent Pendergast in Preston and “Tarzan and the Amazons” filmed in 1945 on the property that became the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Child’s Blue Labyrinth < https:// Botanic Garden. Photograph from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and used with permission. The Arboretum en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Labyrinth >. will have a celebration of all things Tarzan on June 30, 2018, in honor of the centennial of the first Tarzan motion picture.
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CBHL Newsletter, c/o Esther Jackson, Secretary Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, Inc. LuEsther T. Mertz Library The New York Botanical Garden 2900 Southern Boulevard Bronx, NY 10458-5126
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The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, Inc., Newsletter is an official publication of CBHL, an international organization of botany and horticulture libraries and others supportive of CBHL’s goals. ISSN 1543-2653 (print version); ISSN 1545-5734 (electronic version); published on the Council’s Web site: < http://www.cbhl.net >. The CBHL LibGuide is < http://cbhl.libguides.com > .
The quarterly Newsletter is sent by mail to all current members of CBHL. Submissions are welcome according to the following schedule: February issue (copy due 12/15), May issue (copy due 3/15), August issue (copy due 6/15), and November issue (copy due 9/15). Publications Committee Chair, Mariah Lewis, Newsletter Editor/Designer, Susan Eubank < [email protected] >, Proofreaders: Staci Catron < [email protected] >, Jennie Oldfield < [email protected] >, and Kathy Allen < [email protected] >.
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